Parents of man killed at 'Tha City Paper' show sue rapper, club

Nearly a year ago, someone gunned down 22-year-old Brian Amos Jr. inside Bentley’s House of Soul, a club near downtown Nashville.

Last week, his parents, Karen Bates-Thompson and Brian Amos Sr., filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the club, its security, local rapper Marcus Fitzgerald (aka “Tha City Paper”) and his record label Felonious Entertainment LLC citing negligence in their son’s death, which they said happened at the club on the same night as a performance by Fitzgerald.

According to the Metro Nashville Police Department at the time, Amos got into an argument inside the club’s bathroom and was later shot in the stomach. He died soon after at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The suit, which can be found here, alleges that the security check procedures for Bentley’s House of Soul were inadequate on the night of the concert.

“It is further alleged that all defendants knew or should have known that by the nature of music being played by ... ‘Tha City Paper’, that it was foreseeable that some patrons in the crowd could possess weapons,” the lawsuit states.

The suit claims that Bentley’s House of Soul and One World Protection, a security agency, didn’t implement “thorough and detailed” security checks.

Amos’ parents seek compensatory damages of up to $7 million and no more than $10 million in punitive damages.

No arrests have yet been made in the case, despite a reportedly large crowd in the club for the concert. The person who shot Amos is listed as John Doe in the lawsuit filed in Davidson County Circuit Court.

Tim Bowden, the attorney for Amos’ parents, said he didn’t want to file the civil action before an arrest was made in the case, but the one-year statute of limitations forced them to file.

Neither Fitzgerald nor the management of Bentley’s House of Soul could be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

10 Comments on this post:

For a lot of people and certainly those in the 47% suing is their only chance of exceeding theie IQ.

By:bfra on 10/9/12 at 7:10

Raspy - If your spelling is an example of your IQ, it must me about 25.

By:MemphisTigers07 on 10/9/12 at 7:48

Sounds to me like someone is trying to profit from a tragedy.

By:GuardianDevil01 on 10/10/12 at 5:13

If "all defendants knew or should have known..." then why exempt the victim of responsibility for knowing? When you go to a bar or club that plays rap music you implicitly accept the risk that you will be shot or stabbed. When you choose to interact and socialize with criminals and other members of the guttural culture that listens to a genre of music that glorifies most of what is wrong with society today then bad things happen to you.

By:Loner on 10/10/12 at 5:54

Guns in bars are legal in TN...why would anyone go to a rap concert in a Nashville gin mill when that's the local law?

It's not just the rap bars. Guns are in the Country & Western bars too, it's not just for "jungle bunnies" anymore. In Music City, even the lawmakers pack heat...Nashville is a well-armed city.

The victim should have had a weapon too, I suppose, for self-defense....of course, if everyone had been armed that night, the whole place could have erupted into a war zone.....an orgasm of gun powder and flying lead.....Yeeeee Haaawww!

I feel sorry for the parents, but no to so much for their lawyers who stand to make millions off of their grief.

By:bobyounts@comca... on 10/10/12 at 8:18

A fatality in a black nightclub...you're kidding me. Just another example of Nashville's declining crime rate...right Mr. Police Chief?

By:girliegirl on 10/10/12 at 8:25

Like a LAW would have prevented someone (read thug/criminal) from ferreting a gun into an establishment. LOL

By:fightcrib on 10/10/12 at 10:12

Now we know who the Nashville City Paper is named after.

By:G.Scout on 10/10/12 at 12:07

To GuardianDevil01 -- I totally agree with your comment "If all defendants knew or should have known... then why exempt the victim of responsibility for knowing? " except they're using that arguement for the SECURITY COMPANY being lax in checking people at the door for weapons, not for the patrons knowing what they were/are getting into. A little personal responsibility would go a long way here, I believe -- for everyone concerned. I don't know why they think Tha City Paper has millions of dollars --lmao -- but that's their problem.
As for the rest of your comment -- I can't get behind you on that. Its just a different genre of music. I dont make judgements about it or the people who listen to it. But thats just me.

By:mrazz2u on 10/11/12 at 8:07

Rasputin72. WHAT A JACKOFF YOU ARE . YOU TRY TO TALK ABOUT THESE FOLKS LIKE YOU KNOW THEM. YOU DON'T, YOU F'N PUNK. THESE ARE HONEST HARD WORKING PEOPLE WHO I HAVE PERSONALLY KNOWN FOR OVER 30 YEARS. ON YOUR BEST DAY YOU COULD NOT BE A PIECE OF THE MAN THE BA SR. IS. STAY IN YOUR LITTLE BOX WORLD AND KEEP WATCHINGTHE OH I'M SCARED CHANNEL WITH THE REST OF THE SCARED LITTLE PUNKS OF THE WORLD.